Cutting platforms, such as grain and maize harvesting headers or gatherers, on combine harvesters are often provided with dividers at their lateral ends to separate the crop to be gathered from the standing crop. The dividers are generally triangular when viewed from the side and are mounted with their pointed end facing the direction of travel and projecting forwards from the remainder of the cutting platform.
The width of the cutting platform prevents a combine harvester from being driven along normal roads when it is in its working position. For this reason, it is known to separate the cutting platform from the combine harvester and to transport it on a trailer. When the cutting platform is mounted on a trailer for transportation, the crop divider projects laterally and this both increases the width of the transported load and presents a hazard to other road users.
It has been proposed to remove the divider completely from the cutting platform and to stack it on the cutting platform during transportation. This is not entirely satisfactory because the header bounces around as the trailer is pulled over uneven ground, which both generates noise and risks damaging the header and/or the divider.
EP-1 036 495 discloses a crop divider that can pivot relative to a header about a vertical axis so that the divider can be moved to a transport position in which, instead of pointing forwards, it points parallel to the axis of rotation of the header, i.e. at right angles to the direction of travel of the combine harvester.
DD 128878 shows an alternative solution to the problem in which the divider can pivot about a single axis so that its pointed end can be moved to a retracted transport position in which it faces backwards in the direction of travel.